Korea’s Best Prepare for the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) Semifinals

The Global StarCraft II League (GSL) has already had an incredible first season of 2018, with some crazy upsets, close series, and a great foreign hope making it all the way to the quarterfinals. With this season wrapping up, only four players remain to make their run at the coveted title of GSL Champion.

soO’s Lucky Number Seven?

We can’t talk about the remaining players without mentioning the most compelling story in Korean StarCraft II. Eo “soO” Yoon Su has been a force of nature since his first GSL finals in 2013. He’s one of the best Zerg players in the world, and you can always count on him to make it far in any tournament he’s in. In fact, making it far has been a long-standing curse of his.

Since his first GSL finals, he’s appeared in five more. While impressive, it’s heartbreaking to see him appear in six finals and never take home the championship. To make it even harder to bear, he also made it to the finals of the 2017 Global Finals at BlizzCon, only to land yet another second-place finish. With only Kim “Stats” Dae Yeob standing between him and his record-breaking seventh GSL final, he’s the name to watch as we head into the semis.

Enter the Dark Realm

Park “Dark” Ryung Woo has been at the edge of glory for a long time. He consistently places high in nearly all tournaments he appears in, and he shows an aggressive style of Zerg play that’s an absolute delight to watch. But while he’s no stranger to top-four finishes, it’s been well over a year since his last major tournament win—and he’s never won a season of GSL. While he has a tough opponent ahead in Cho “Maru” Seong Ju, Dark has been looking at the top of his game so far this season. If he can make it past the final Terran player in the bracket—who just took out the two-time world champion, Kim “sOs” Yoo Jin—he may very well take home the GSL championship title he’s chased for so long.

The first season of GSL in 2018 continues with the semifinals Wednesday, March 21 at 2:30 a.m. PDT.